A three-way with Jeffery & Cole

Whether they are playing Little Old Ladies, contemplating Sigourney Weaver or being Amused British People Conversing From Opposite Sides of the Room, Jeffery Self and Cole Escola are making viewers laugh with their new Logo sketch show, Jeffery & Cole Casserole.

The show is a hit on Logo and online and there's hope that as the first season concludes Friday that the gay network will order up another season of this innovative series. Edge's Jim Halterman did a three-way... phone call with the guys to talk about their sitcom inspirations, who they would and wouldn't want to guest on the show and whether or not they like a supporting character getting a spin-off series.

The more we drank...

EDGE: So you'll be happy to know I was watching episodes of Jeffery & Cole Casserole on my lap top in a Time Square coffee shop this morning.

Jeffery: I prefer people only watch us in Time Square.

EDGE: I was hoping for a crowd of people wanting to know why I was laughing my ass off.

Jeffery: No! They're all too busy sitting on that goddamn lawn furniture they have on Broadway!

EDGE: Don't get me started! I hate that!

Jeffery: Don't get me started! [laughs] They need to get that shit out of there!

EDGE: So, let's start at the very beginning. How did you two get together?

Jeffery: Cole and I met through mutual friends and we didn't like each other for a while...

Cole: It's true. We didn't...

Jeffery: ...and then the more we drank the more we liked each other.

Cole: Then we started writing together and coming up with ideas and it just kind of happened that we started making the videos and then TV!

EDGE: You've done live shows at places such as Joe's Pub here in New York, right?

Jeffery: It was really exciting when that first started happening. We were in the middle of making videos and all of a sudden people had to see the show. Cole, you always say that was the first time you realized the videos were popular, right?

Cole: Yeah, when we had a full-out show because of our videos and we had people there and it was like, "Oh, people like this."

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Watch this YouTube video of Jeffery & Cole.

A modern day Hollywood fairy tale

EDGE: How did you guys get to Logo and create the show?

Cole: Logo approached us!

Jeffery: Yeah, I think someone at Logo had been following the YouTube videos for a while and then apparently they were at a show that we did.

Cole: It was a modern day Hollywood fairy yale. You know, Lana Turner being discovered at the drug store.

EDGE: Has Logo pretty much just let you run free with what you want to do?

Jeffery: Not beyond what you're legally not allowed to do on television. I can't shave Cole from the feet up.

Cole: Well, you could depending on how you shoot it angle-wise. But, yeah, they've given us creative freedom.

Jeffery: It's cool because it's such a low budget kind of developmental thing and we're given the freedom to do what we want and trial and error and figure out what kind of TV show we'd like to make. When we first sat down we really didn't know what we were doing. We just knew we had 21 minutes to fill and we had to figure out the best way to do that.

EDGE: How much of the show is scripted and how much is improvised?

Jeffery: I would say 50/50.

Cole: And when we improvise something that works, we keep it. Some of it is semi-scripted, some of it is improvised. Sometimes the first take will be the best.

Jeffery: Sometimes most of it is scripted.

Cole: The three-part stories, we write that all out beforehand.

EDGE: Who are your comic inspirations?

Cole: Well, we always say our biggest influence is late 80s/early 90s sitcoms.

Jeffery: Sitcoms and lady films.

Cole: Both of us were raised on TV and we're sitcom kids. TGIF and all that so I think we got influenced by the comedies of the 90s.

EDGE: Like Full House?

Cole: We're talking more Kate & Allie...

Jeffery: Family Matters. [silence] Am I the only one who is into Family Matters on this line?

Cole: No! Me, too.

EDGE: I don't know about Family Matters...but I could see you doing a Kate & Allie skit.

Cole: I think that's already what we do is Kate & Allie.

EDGE: You have a great bit on Sigourney Weaver, so is getting big names to appear on the show something you're interested in?

Jeffery: I think that's why we're doing this!

Cole: We think about that everyday. Right now, we can't have those people because our show is non-union but in a dream world...we probably spend half of our time writing the show and half our time imagining and dreaming who we'd like to have on our show. The list is just monstrous. We really like Julia Duffy, Annie Potts, Laurie Metcalfe.

Jeffery: Any of the Shelleys. Shelley Duvall. Shelley Long. If you made a B-rate romantic comedy or screwball comedy anywhere between 1982 and 1995 we'd love to have you on our TV show.

EDGE: So maybe The Facts of Life girls could show up?

Jeffery: I would not take Lisa Whelchel because she's a fundamentalist Christian home school mom. She has her own website all about being a Mom and taking time for yourself which is what I try to do everyday but she takes it too far so she's not allowed on the show. In fact, let's start a list of people not allowed and she's at the top of it.

Cole: She's definitely at the top of it.

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Watch this YouTube video of Jeffery & Cole.

Laverne & Shirley

EDGE: A lot of comedy teams in the past tend to implode over time. Can we expect a Martin & Lewis feud down the line?

Jeffery: Oh definitely. Definitely.

Cole: I always think of ourselves more like either Laverne & Shirley or Burns & Allen.

Jeffery: But Laverne & Shirley weren't real people.

Cole: What are you talking about?

EDGE: Yeah, how could you say that, Jeffery?

Cole: They had a show! They had a reality show called Laverne & Shirley living together in Chicago. [It was actually Milwaukee!] What are you talking about, Jeffery?

Jeffery: The day we realized we were Laverne & Shirley was a big moment for us.

EDGE: Which one is which?

Cole: I see myself as more like Laverne and I think he sees himself as more of a Laverne. You might have to poll your readers but I'm afraid of the answer because everyone will say Shirley because I'm petite and brunette.

Jeffery: I'm too brassy and I have a brother that makes comedy films.

EDGE: Any chance we might see a Becky spin-off?

Jeffery: Yes.

Cole: Yes, but maybe not because we kind of feel threatened by it now because everyone we talk to keeps saying, "Who's this Becky character?"

Jeffery: It was a mistake to put someone that masculine on our show because it's really upstaging but we've been thinking about a way of doing a Becky spin-off because I think it's a good idea.

EDGE: You do some characters in drag on the show. Are you fans of being in drag?

Jeffery: It's sort of a weird thing.

Cole: Drag? Am I fan? Am I fan of showering? Maybe but it's just something I have to do everyday but it's not whether or not I am a fan. It's in my DNA.

EDGE: Has being on TV improved your dating life?

Cole: Not really. We're not likeable...

Jeffery: We're not very likeable in real life.

Cole: I'm sure Becky's dating life has improved.

Jeffery: I think it's definitely got him laid.

EDGE: According to your individual Twitter pages...

Jeffery: We drink a lot as you can tell...

EDGE: I saw that. I also saw that Jeffery has over 1500 followers but Cole has 869 so what is Jeffery doing that Cole isn't to get all these followers?

Jeffery: I'm really aggressive about it.

Cole: He's aggressive with it and I'm...I don't know...

Jeffery: He doesn't have time to deal with that kind of stuff. I don't have much of a life so I spend a lot of time on Twitter. I don't know what it is. It's a strange alignment of the planets.

Cole: I agree...as Shirley MacLaine would say.

Jeffery: She's someone we'd like to have on our show.

EDGE: As you two get more popular, is there more pressure to be funny?

Jeffery: I think there's more pressure from our fans that we want to keep writing new stuff and putting new stuff out there. It's sort of weird to spend so much time working on our Logo show and not be working on the YouTube videos, which is sort of like instant gratification. You shoot the video, you put it out there and people will tell you whether or not it sucks so it's weird.

EDGE: Cole?

Cole: Yes...um...yes, I agree. I don't really feel pressure...I don't know. I'm really high.

EDGE: Cole, are you sitting in those lawn chairs in Times Square?

Cole: No, I'm wearing my Grandmother's nightgown and I'm on the floor in my bedroom.

Jeffery: I'm in Central Park on a date, actually. This is what I do on dates.

Cole: Oh! He does press on dates. Your date must be really impressed.

The season finale of Jeffery & Cole Casserole airs this Friday simultaneously on Logo and www.LogoOnline.com at 11pm ET/PT.

Watch this YouTube video of Jeffery & Cole.